Sunday, December 28, 2014

On Christmas Eve
of 1914—a hundred years ago this month and in the midst of brutal trench
warfare—a moment of peace broke out on the Western Front. It was a great moment
of disobedience.

Cold, weary and
homesick Christian soldiers on both sides of the infamous No Man’s Land of the Western Front, recognized their common
humanity, dropped their guns and fraternized with their “enemy”. They had all
hoped desperately that this miserable trench war would end soon but now knew
they would not be home for Christmas like they had naively believed (and had
been led to believe by the press). It was a moment of sudden clarity and tender
mercy by those who also knew that they would likely never go home.

It was five months
after the Great War had broken out; a war fated to last another four brutal
years, in which fifteen million civilian and military men and women would be
killed. Considered one of the deadliest conflicts in history, WWI had
significant global effects, effects that still ripple through it to this day.
Consequences include the Bolshevik Revolution, the Great Depression, World War
II, the Holocaust, development of the atom bomb, the Cold War and the collapse
of European colonialism.

As many as 100,000
of the million troops (10%), stationed along the 500 mile Western Front in
World War I, mutually and spontaneously stopped fighting for at least 24 to 36
hours (from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day). Isolated instances of local truces
occurred as early as December 11, and continued sporadically until New Year’s
Day and into early January 1915.

As Christmas
neared, the soldiers on both sides of the trenches “sensed the stupidity
of killing someone that was just like them and who had never done them any
harm,” writes Gary G. Kohls of Global Research. “Many of the men that
experienced the moment knew that something deeply profound had happened: a
spiritual experience of mutual respect and love that epitomized their mutual
Christian upbringing – and they refused to fight and kill when the war was
ordered to re-start.” They
disobeyed their orders that forbade them to lay down their weapons and
fraternize with the enemy: an enemy—the soldier in the trench across from them—who
in some ways more shared their lot than their own officers and politicians.

On
Christmas Eve 1914, German troops ceased fire in the region of Ypres, Belgium
and Saint-Yvon. They decorated the area around their trenches, just 30 to 300
yards from the British, French, or Belgian trenches. The Germans decorated
Christmas trees and sang Christmas carols. The British responded with carols of
their own. The two sides then shouted Christmas greetings to each other.
Eventually, soldiers ventured out of their trenches into No Man's Land; they shook hands with their “enemy”, shared smokes,
food and wine and sang with each other. Souvenirs such as buttons and hats were
exchanged. The artillery in the region fell silent. Joint services were held.
In many places along the front, the truce lasted through Christmas night,
continuing until New Year’s Day.

Troops from all
sides took advantage to bury their dead, lying all over the battlefields; there
were even reports of joint burial services and of soccer games played between
the Germans and British.

Despite general’s
strict orders against any kind of fraternization with the enemy, at least 115
fighting units among British, German, French and Belgian soldiers participated
in the spontaneous truce.

Future
nature writer Henry Williamson, then a nineteen-year-old private in the London
Rifle Brigade, wrote to his mother on Boxing Day:

"Dear Mother, I am writing from the trenches.
It is 11 o'clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a
'dug-out' (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench,
but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary.
In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. But wait. In the pipe is German
tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. Oh dear,
no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday
the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the
trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day,
& as I write. Marvelous, isn't it?"

German
artillery officer Mr Rickner described celebrating with French soldiers.

“I remember
very well Christmas, I remember the Christmas Day when the German and the
French soldiers left their trenches, went to the barbed wire between them with
champagne and cigarettes in their hands and had feelings of fraternization and
shouted they wanted to finish the war …”

The Christmas
Truce of 1914 came close to ending the futile and brutal trench war; but it
didn’t…

Eco-psychologists
and cultural historians argue that human archetypes rooted in mutual respect,
empathy, and cooperation are crucial to our species survival and evolution.

Around 5,500 years
ago, small Neolithic villages burgeoned into larger urban “civilizations,” and
a new organizational idea emerged, says Bruce Wilson of Popular Resistance:

“What cultural
historian Lewis Mumford calls a megamachine,
comprised totally of human parts
forced to work together to perform tasks on a colossal scale never before
imagined. Civilization saw the creation of bureaucracies directed by a power
complex of an authority figure (a king) with scribes and messengers, which
organized labor machines (masses of workers) to construct pyramids, irrigation
systems, and huge grain storage systems among other structures, all enforced by
a military. Its features were centralization of power, separation of people
into classes, lifetime division of forced labor and slavery, arbitrary
inequality of wealth and privilege, and military power and war… We have been
stuck for three hundred generations in a model requiring massive obedience to
large vertical power complexes.”

Etienne de la
Boetie (1553), founder of modern philosophy in France, tells us that massive
civil obedience is required to enable vertical authority
structures to prevail, whether in the form of monarchial succession, dictatorship,
or democratic selections. Autonomous freedom once enjoyed by peoples in
pre-civilization tribal groups have given way to the controlling ideologies of
authority structures. These de la Boetie described as oppressive “domination
hierarchies” where private property and male subjugation of women prevail, by
force if necessary.

The emergence of
vertical authority structures, the rule of kings and nobles, ripped people from
historical patterns of living in small tribal groups (Theodore Roszak, Mary E.
Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner, 1995). Along with forced stratification, the
separation of people from their intimate connections with the earth produced
deep insecurity, fear, and trauma to the psyche. Ecopyschologists suggest that
such fragmentation led to an ecological unconscious.

The 1914 Christmas
Truce was a heroic act of disobedience by men, who—recognizing a common belief
and trust—refused their orders to fight each other on Christmas Eve and laid
down their arms to “fraternize” with their enemy.

“The 1914
Christmas Truce of one hundred years ago was an extraordinary example of how
wars can only continue if soldiers agree to fight,” says Bruce Wilson of Popular Resistance:

“It needs to be
honored and celebrated, even if it was only a flash of a moment in time. It
represents the potential of human disobedience to insane policies. As German
poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht proclaimed, General, your tank is a
powerful vehicle. It smashes down forests, and crushes a Hundred men. But it
has one defect: it needs a driver. If commoners refused en masse to
drive the tank of war, the leaders would be left to fight their own battles.
They would be brief.”

Friday, December 19, 2014

Using the latest Kepler telescope, scientists have recently discovered
close to 140 Earth-like planets among thousands of exotic exoplanets in the
galaxy. They claim that many more could harbor the right conditions for life. Astrophysicist Natalie Batalha, mission scientist for the Kepplar
Space telescope (NASA Ames Research Centre as part of the NASA Discovery
Program): “to determine the fraction of stars in our galaxy that harbor
potentially habitable Earth-size planets.”… The one common ingredient that
makes a planet habitable, Batalha tells us, is the need for liquid water. They
are looking for planets “with rocky services where water could pool, that are
receiving the right amount of energy from the star where the water wouldn’t be
locked up in a frozen state because the planet is too cold, nor would it be
evaporated away because it’s too hot. We call it the Goldilocks Zone where
liquid water can exist.”

Exoplanet
Kepler 186f, located 490 light-years from Earth and nicknamed Earth’s cousin
was discovered by the Kepler telescope earlier this year. Orbiting star Kepler
186, it is the first validated Earth-like planet to orbit a distant star in its
habitable zone. It could support oceans and alien life.

I’m
an ecologist and, like my mother who is a master baker, I love to create
ecosystems from scratch. So the research to world-build has been a fun part of
writing my science fiction novels to date.

The
duology Darwin’s Paradox and Angel of Chaos, are set on Earth in
2095 in a climate-changed Greater Toronto Area (now called Icaria-5); Icaria-5 is
an enclosed community, nested in a wild heathland, abandoned by a fearful
society governed by a Technocratic government of ecologists.

The Splintered
Universe Trilogy explores several potentially habitable worlds that I
researched through NASA files. Each
world portrayed in the three books is a realizable and habitable world—OK, in
some cases with the help of a little bio-geo alteration by the Eosian race…

Most
of the places I researched and used for our intrepid hero, galactic detective
Rhea Hawke of the Splintered Universe
Trilogy, appeared on NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder top 100 list:

Iota Horologii:
Neon City is Rhea Hawke’s hometown and where the main precinct of the Galactic
Guardian force, for which she works, is headquartered. It’s on Iota Hor-2,
which orbits Iota Horologii b (a Jupitor-like gas giant) in the Iota Horologii
system (a Class G0Vp, yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star. The moon was
tidally influenced by the jovian giant: it had an atmosphere in danger of being
periodically sucked away, and an eccentric orbit that swung from a tropical
summer to a Siberian winter. That was bio-geo altered by the Eosians. The
Horologium Constellation is located near Taurus and Orion. Iota Horologii became one of the top 100 target
stars for NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF).

70 Virginis:
Rhea visits Virgil City on the moon Virgil 9, orbiting 70 Virginis b
(Goldilocks), a jovian planet. The star is a G4V class yellow-orange main
sequence dwarf. Virgil city suffers from periodic intense heat and drought to
long nights of intense flooding. The natives, an amoeba-like colony have
adapted to these severe conditions.

47 Ursae Majoris: Rhea first visits Pyramid City on 47 Ursae Majoris b (47 Uma b), a
volcanicplanet called Horus by its
bird-like inhabitants. She then visits Paradise City on Uma 1, an icy moon that
orbits the planet and used as a spiritual retreat by the Schiss, a Gnostic
religious sect. 47 Ursae Majoris is a solar analog, yellow dwarf star that is
listed as one of the top 100 target stars in NASA’s TPF.

Pleiades Nabula: this open star cluster in the Taurus Constellation is the home for
the planet Eos, where the Eosians, who run the Galactic Guardian force come
from.

Here
are ten criteria identified by NASA scientists for a habitable planet:

1. Habitable Goldilocks Neighbourhood

The
habitable zone (HZ) is the distance from a star where an Earth-like planet can
maintain liquid water on its surface and Earth-like life. The habitable zone is
not the same as “planetary habitability”. While planetary habitability describes
the planetary conditions needed to maintain carbon-based life, the habitable
zone describes the stellar conditions required to maintain carbon-based life.

A ”
Goldilocks planet ” is a planet that falls within a star’s habitable zone, and
the name is often specifically used for planets close to the size of Earth. The
name comes from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, in which the
little girl, Goldilocks, rules out extreme choices (large or small, hot or
cold, etc.), In the same way, a planet following the Goldilocks Principle is
one that is neither too close nor too far from a star to rule out liquid water
on its surface and life (as humans understand it).

Scientists
describe areas they think are less suited to life than others:

globular cluster in the midst of
immense star densities with excessive radiation and gravitational disturbance.

near an active gamma ray source.

near the galactic center where a
supermassive black hole is believed to lie (e.g., Gargantua in Interstellar)

2. Less
Alterations in Luminosity of its Star

Changes in luminosity are common to all stars, but the severity of the
fluctuations ranges broadly. A small number of variable stars experience sudden
and intense increases in luminosity, making them poor candidates for hosting
life-bearing planets. Life adapted to a specific temperature range would likely
not survive great and variable temperature fluctuations. Upswings in luminosity
create massive doses of gamma ray and X-ray radiation. Atmospheres mitigate
such effects; however, planets orbiting variables may be periodically stripped
of their atmosphere by the high-frequency energy buffeting them.

3. High
Metallicity of its Star

A
star’s metallicity results from the proportion of its matter made up of
chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium. Since stars that make up most
of the visible matter in the universe, are composed mostly of hydrogen and
helium, astronomers use the blanket term “metal” to describe all other elements
collectively. A low amount of metal hugely decreases the probability that planets
of sufficient mass favorable for life would have formed.

4. Good Jupiters

These
are gas giant planets, like our Jupiter, that orbit their stars in circular
orbits far enough away from the habitable zone to not disturb it but close
enough to “protect” terrestrial planets in closer orbit in two critical ways:

they help
stabilize the orbits, and climates, of the inner planets.

they keep the
inner solar system relatively free of comets and asteroids that could cause
devastating impacts.Jupiter orbits the Sun at about five times the
distance between the Earth and the Sun. This is the rough distance we should
expect to find good Jupiters elsewhere. Jupiter’s “caretaker” role was
illustrated in 1994 when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted the giant; had Jovian
gravity not captured the comet, it could have entered the inner solar system.

5. More Mass

Low-mass
planets are poor candidates for life for two reasons:

lesser gravity
makes atmosphere retention difficult. Molecules are more likely to reach escape
velocity and be lost to space when buffeted by solar wind or stirred by
collision.

smaller planets
have smaller diameters and higher surface-to-volume ratios thanlarger planets. They will lose the energy
left over from their formation too quickly, lacking the volcanoes, earthquakes
and tectonic activity that supplies the surface with life-sustaining material
and the atmosphere with temperature moderators like carbon dioxide. Plate
tectonics recycle important chemicals and minerals; they also foster
bio-diversity through continent creation and increased environmental complexity
and help create the convective cells necessary to generate a magnetic field.

A
larger mass will more likely retain a molten core as a heat engine, driving the
diverse geology of the surface. A larger planet is also more likely to have a
large iron core with a magnetic field to protect the planet from stellar wind
and cosmic radiation.

6. Less Eccentric Orbit

Orbital
eccentricity is the difference between a planet’s farthest and closest approach
to its parent star divided by the sum of that distances. This ratio describes
the shape of the elliptical orbit. The greater the eccentricity, the greater
the temperature fluctuation on a planet’s surface. When the fluctuations
overlap both the freezing point and boiling point of the planet’s main biotic
solvent (e.g., water on Earth), life is severely compromised. The more complex
the organism, the greater the temperature sensitivity. The Earth’s orbit is
almost wholly circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.02.

7. Axial Tilt

A
planet’s movement around its rotational axis must also meet certain criteria
for life to evolve. If little or no axial tilt (or obliquity) exists relative
to the perpendicular of the ecliptic, seasons will not occur and a main stimulant
to biospheric dynamism will disappear. Alternatively, if a planet is radically
tilted, seasons will be extreme and make it more difficult for a biosphere to
achieve homeostasis.

8. Biomass & Long-Term Orbiting
Bodies

The
four elements most vital for life on Earth—carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen—are also the most common chemically reactive elements in the universe.
Simple biogenic compounds, such as amino acids, were found in meteorites and in
the interstellar medium. These four elements together comprise over 96% of
Earth’s collective biomass. Carbon has an unparalleled ability to bond with
itself and to form a massive array of intricate and varied structures, making
it an ideal material for the complex mechanisms that form living cells. Hydrogen
and oxygen (in the form of water) are the solvent in which biological processes
take place and where the first reactions occurred that led to life’s emergence
on Earth. The energy released in the formation of powerful covalent bonds
between carbon and oxygen, available through oxidizing organic compounds, is
the fuel of all complex life-forms on Earth. Although these four “life
elements” appear to be readily available elsewhere, a habitable system likely
also requires a supply of long-term orbiting bodies to seed inner planets.
Without comets there is a possibility that life as we know it would not exist
on Earth.

9. Microenvironment

Only
a tiny portion of a planet needs to support life to make it habitable. The
discovery of life in extreme conditions has complicated definitions of habitability,
but also generated a lot of excitement in greatly broadening the known range of
conditions under which life can persist. For example, a planet whose solar
conditions would generally prohibit an atmosphere from forming, might nurture
one within a deep shadowed rift or volcanic cave. Similarly, craterous terrain
might offer a refuge for primitive life.

10. Different Metabolism Mechanism

Some
scientists hypothesize that lifeforms evolving around a different metabolic mechanism
may have arisen. In Evolving the Alien, biologist Jack Cohen and
mathematician Ian Stewart suggest that Earth-like planets may be very rare, but
that non-carbon-based complex life could emerge in other environments. The most
frequently mentioned alternative to carbon is silicon-based life, while ammonia
is sometimes suggested as an alternative solvent to water.

None
were planets that I’d chosen. But that’s just 10 so far in a host of many more
to come; it’s only a matter of time.

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visitwww.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

I paint not by sight
but by faith. Faith gives you sight—Amos Ferguson

Saint Lucia

Do you believe in miracles?

On this day, some twenty-odd years ago, after over 12 hours
of hard labour, I rejoiced in God’s miracle of creation.I gave birth to a beautiful son. A soul of
brilliant light. My son was born on Saint Lucia’s Day, named after St. Lucy of
Syracuse—the saint of light. A day celebrated as a National Day on the tiny
island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, named after its patron saint, St. Lucy.
While I was laboring all night in a Vancouver hospital, the island of Saint
Lucia gleamed in the brilliance of the National Festival of Lights and Renewal.

Saint Lucia is one of the earliest Christian martyrs. She
was brutally killed by the Romans in 304 AD because of her religious beliefs,
refusing to consecrate her marriage to a pagan. Lucia (which literally means
light; lux, lucis) secretly brought food to the persecuted Catholics in Rome,
who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She wore candles on her
head to liberate both hands so she could carry more. You can read
more about the story here.

St. Lucia’s Day is a festival of lights primarily celebrated
in Sweden, Norway and the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland on December 13th
in honour of St. Lucia. The day is celebrated by choosing a girl to dress in a
white dress with a crown of candles on her head as part of a carol-singing procession.
The girl’s crown is made of Lingonberry branches, which are evergreen and
symbolize new life in winter.

The festival marks the beginning of the Christmas season in
Scandinavia and brings hope and light during the darkest time of the years.
Scandinavian families celebrate the day with coffee and baked goods such as
saffron bread (lussekatter) and
ginger biscuits (pepparkakor).

In earlier times, when this festivity coincided with the
Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, huge bonfires were constructed
to scare off evil spirits and alter the course of the sun. Since the calendar
reforms, her feast day became a festival of light. Celebrated most commonly in
Scandinavia (with its long dark winters), Saint Lucia’s Day is a major feast
day. The Italians also ostensibly celebrate this day, but emphasize a different
aspect of her story. The devotions to light predate Christian times with pagan midwinter
elements, centered on the annual struggle between light and darkness.

So, on this day, twelve days before Christmas and eight days
before the shortest day of the year (the Winter Solstice), I celebrate my
miracle.The miracle of light, but also
of chiaroscuro, where light and dark play to create enlightenment. Because,
just as you cannot have “up” without “down”, you cannot have light without
dark.

“At the place of darkest dark, the light in contrast is the
most noticeable,” Marianne Hieb, author of Inner
Journeying Through Art-Journaling (2005) tells us. She tells us that it is
in the places of greatest contrast … “grace is waiting there for you.”

When my son was born, I was born too. So was my art. I was
already creating. I had written some

My little boy...

short stories and had published a few
articles. But it wasn’t until my son was born that my creativity exploded.
Became galvanized. Achieved meaning. Just as light helps define texture and
form, my son helped me define my balance, movement, rhythm, contrast, emphasis,
pattern and unity.

Marianne Hieb tells us that these are the very principles of
design. Like the fabric of a fine tapestry, they hold aspects of creativity together
and define our art.Just as they define
us.

...grows up

Balance: you find
balance when you first walk, ride a bike, skate and ski. In art, balance refers
to the distribution of visual weights. It is the visual equilibrium of the
elements that comprise the entire image. Symmetrical balance is achieved when
elements or sections of equal quality mirror each other. An example of
asymmetrical balance with unequal elements would be a painting where one small
intense color can balance a grouping of less intense and larger things. This
provides excellent metaphor in journal representations and life-journeys. Think
of the balances between irregular and simple shapes, intense and subdued
colors. Think color, shape, size, texture, value when creating balance or
showing the opposite. Balance can indicate movement and can also radiate out
from a single point of focus.

Movement: A
balance of movement and stillness exists in all works of art, in dance, in
music, in painting, sculpture and literature. Says Hieb, “Shapes and colors
move the eye most easily through the work. Lines provide visual passage or
linkage. Your eyes follow the edges of darkness or edges of light. Visual
movement leads your seeing through the work, to a point of focus.” Horizontal,
vertical and diagonal are the three main types of visual movement. Horizontal
movement usually conveys a calm or restful sense. If you use vertical movement,
you may be expressing a feeling of firmness or stability or even growing.
Diagonal movement often reflects action and swiftness.

Rhythm: Rhythm is
the repetition of visual movement of color, shapes, lines, values, forms,
spaces and textures. Movement and rhythm work together, says Hieb. Rhythms are
present in all natural things and can be regular, irregular, staccato and
progressive. Rhythm has the power of uniting and energizing images and themes,
through implied connection and relationship.

Contrast:
contrast is delivered through color, texture, and shape. Contrast creates
visual excitement, drama. Says Hieb, “at the place of darkest dark, the light
in contrast is the most noticeable … [in] the places of greatest contrast …
grace is waiting there for you.” Contrast can exist in many forms: smooth vs.
rough; light vs. dark; dry vs. wet; playful vs. dour; anger vs. forgiveness —
just to name a few. Contrast is drama. It is a place of potential conflict,
tension, and great enlightenment.

Emphasis:Emphasis creates focus. You can emphasize
color, shapes, direction or other art elements to achieve dominance, says Hieb.
Given that each of these elements is significance with the psyche, what
elements you chose to emphasize in your drawing or selection of art can give
you additional insight to what was important to you or affecting you at the
time. For instance, colors can reflect mood: red emphasizes and reflects
passion or danger; green reflects nature and healing; orange is fun and warm;
blue is cool and calming, etc. Shapes can be very symbolic. Researchers have
shown that angular shapes are less apt to elevate feelings of comfort and well
being then circular shapes, which engender feelings of safety, unity and
harmony. Squares can reflect conformity and equality; triangles can suggest
self-discovery and revelation; spirals can express creativity, and so on.

Pattern: A pattern
is basically a recognizable series of elements. For instance, you experience
patterns of activities and behavior. Patterns are the planned or random
repetitions that occur in nature and in your life. They increase visual
excitement. Patterns that occur in nature exhibit unique and exquisite beauty.
Pattern — in shape, color, texture — can relate to one’s history, personal
experiences, and choices. They can similarly reveal our reactions, reflections
and feelings.

Proud Mom...

Unity: the use of
a dominant color scheme or overall surface treatment creates a strong sense of
unity. Unity provides the cohesive quality that makes an artwork feel complete
and finished, says Hieb. “A subjective sense of oneness is the felt experience
of the principle of unity,” she adds. Unity is achieved through the harmonious
integration of the previous elements I named. What unity looks like will be
unique to each individual and to their stage in their life journey.

About Nina

I'm The Alien Next Door. I'm an ecologist and a published author of several novels, articles and reviews. I teach writing at George Brown College and UofT. I also coach writers. For more on writing (articles and advice) and more information about my coaching, visit me at Nina Munteanu Writing Coach. Visit Nina Munteanu Writer for more about my own writing. My new site The Meaning of Water is devoted to our precious water and brings my interest as an ecologist and limnologist to help understand the meaning and importance of this precious and mysterious element. Inside, you'll find articles that explore what water is and its meaning to this planet and to us as a species and life form.